Humpy steps in when ASA doesn't pay purse

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Not NASCAR, but....The debut of the American Speed Association at Lowe's Motor Speedway may be over, but controversy remains. Reed Sorenson, 18, won the Aaron's 99 Thursday night, but after the race, drivers and team owners were notified the sanctioning body did not have the money on hand to pay the more than $92,000 purse. Speedway president H.A. "Humpy" Wheeler stepped in and guaranteed the purse money to the teams that participated in the race, then after the race ended, he sent his track security officers and other workers to the ASA garage to secure the ASA's hauler and other equipment as "collateral." An ASA spokesman declined to comment on the situation. "We sent them the purse last week, which is normal practice, the sanctioning fee and all that and it's customary and a long held practice to pay the purse as soon as the race is over," Wheeler said. "When we found out (before Thursday night) they had not brought the purse with them, obviously the drivers were going to race. It was ASA's responsibility to pay the purse and if they didn't, somebody had to pay it, and that would be us." As of Friday afternoon, Wheeler had not recovered any of the extra money and his track workers still held the ASA equipment. "I've know they have a tough time financially. I was hoping if I sent them the money, at least the purse would show up and it didn't," Wheeler said. "You can't do that."(ThatsRacing.com)(10-16-2004)
 
ASA is on its last legs. They lost their TV deal with SPike TV this year and they have canceled several races.
 
That is such a dirty shame!!!!! ASA is/was a great racin league. Fun and exciting.
A great step for the young drivers to get into full up stock car racing and it's rules.
Soooooooooooooooo, sad to see this happening.
 
Not NASCAR of course, but for many, a stepping stone to the big leagues. Humpy Wheeler impounded all of ASA's equipment this past week because the series told the drivers that they couldn't guarentee the purse for the race. Humpy then impounded the equipment, including the pace car and said that he would guarentee the purse and that he wasn't about to pay for it twice since he had some time ago sent that money to ASA headquarters. Wheeler said that if he had to, he would sell that equipment to help make up the cost, leaving many to wonder what the near future of ASA held. Locally, here in western NC, the touring series SMART (Souther Modified Auto Racing Teams) joined the ASA at the end of last season and has been run under their rules with the last race concluding yesterday 10/17.

ASA is indeed in financial trouble and the CEO and president of the series says that he is tirelessly working to find a series sponsor to keep the series from failing. Seems to me that he's done a pretty bad job of that already. I just hope that if the series does fail that our local SMART series will continue though they were having problems when they were not sanctioned by anyone.
 
Hmmm. I just added my own little thread about this very subject. I wonder if we could get a mod to combine them as I didn't see this thread before I posted mine.

Mods, a little help please. :)
 
Maybe Humpy takes over the reins---would be run better in that case. ;)
 
Without a doubt Humpy could run the series better, but he says that both he and Smitty are in too deep with other things to get involved.
 
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